Posted on 11/03/2006 5:57:05 PM PST by DouglasKC
Evolution's "vestigial organ" argument debunked
How many have been taught in school about our body's supposed "vestigial organs"? The standard definition of a vestigial organ is a body part that was once useful in a species' ancestral past but has now become virtually useless.
Evolutionists have used the vestigial-organ argument for decades to show the supposed evolution of animal and human bodies. They claimed that vestigial or diminishingly useful organs, which Charles Darwin called rudimentary, proved that bodies had evolved from more primitive forms.
However, research has shown the supposed vestigial organs or structures of the human body—such as the appendix, the tonsils and the tailbone—are not "vestigial" at all, but rather are quite useful and purposeful body structures.
The appendix, probably the prime example of a supposed vestigial organ, is now known to have an important immunological function, especially in the first years of life.
"The appendix, like the once 'vestigial' tonsils and adenoids, is a lymphoid organ (part of the body's immune system) which makes antibodies against infections in the digestive system. Believing it to be a useless evolutionary 'left over,' many surgeons once removed even the healthy appendix whenever they were in the abdominal cavity. Today, removal of a healthy appendix under most circumstances would be considered medical malpractice" (David Menton, Ph.D., "The Human Tail, and Other Tales of Evolution," St. Louis MetroVoice , January 1994, Vol. 4, No. 1).
The tonsils, long thought to be useless, are now known to have a useful function in the immune system. They act as a defense mechanism against infection of the upper respiratory tract and perform an important service to the digestive system by filtering out alien materials that may enter the body through the mouth or the nose.
"Doctors once thought tonsils were simply useless evolutionary leftovers and took them out thinking that it could do no harm. Today there is considerable evidence that there are more troubles in the upper respiratory tract after tonsil removal than before, and doctors generally agree that simple enlargement of tonsils is hardly an indication for surgery" (J.D. Ratcliff, Your Body and How it Works, 1975, p. 137).
The tailbone, properly known as the coccyx, is another supposed example of a vestigial structure that has been found to have a valuable function—especially regarding the ability to sit comfortably. Many people who have had this bone removed have great difficulty sitting.
Moreover, various muscles attached to the tailbone are important for helping bowel and childbirth movements, for supporting internal organs and keeping the entrance of the alimentary canal closed. It also has an important function as a point of insertion for several muscles and ligaments, including the gluteus maximus, which is the large muscle that runs down the back of the thigh and allows us to walk upright.
The list of what were once considered vestigial organs in our body has gone from 100 in the early 20th century to virtually zero in 2006, thanks to more research and discoveries in the fields of human anatomy and physiology. What were once considered virtually useless organs have now proven to be quite useful, yet many school and college textbooks on evolution still continue to use them as evidence of evolutionary theory.
I had my tonsils out in '71. Maybe I should sue for malpractice now?
This is Good News magazine, which is a bit behind Mad magazine in reality.
What opinion do you disagree with?
FYI: I'm inclined to think evolution is more or less correct--but I am not really invested in it either way. The point of my original post is that it fallacious to dismiss the article because they have the obvious agenda of arguing for a certain point of view.
Mine is straight and resulted in 3 c-sections because the baby wouldn't enter the birth canal. The natural curve to it guides the baby through the birth process.
Oh really? How many healthy ones have really been removed?
It's actually still done. When my sister-in-law went in for a c-section recently, they offered to take hers out while they were in there. I don't recall if she took them up on it.
The best argument against evolution is that the Earth is 6,000 plus some change years old! Case closed.
Sure but is Clintons organ vestigal ?
And so it was that later as the miller told his tale that her face, at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale She said, 'There is no reason and the truth is plain to see.' But I wandered through my playing cards and would not let her be one of sixteen vestigial virgins who were leaving for the coast and although my eyes were open they might have just as well've been closed
Come on, to the young earth creationists, The Flintstones is seen as a documentary...
You can't argue with them, they will just pull out some silly nonlogic and then damn you to hell for using your brain (which God gave you to use to its fullest).
Its quite sad, when ignorance is treated as a virtue...
Not everyone accepts the book of Genesis at all. And, some, like myself, are not inclined to take the time line in the book of Genesis literally.
The prophecies in the book of Daniel, and in Revelations are highly allegorical; why not the Garden of Eden, which was obviously from the context of a vision, dream or other revelation, rather then an eye witness account by Moses. This does not make it less true, rather it makes it full of the important points God wanted to get across.
A seeming weakness of this view would be the apparant literal account of ten generations between Adam and Noah, however I do note that the Geneisis is full of partial genological accounts that had to include other people. My guess would be that it was based on highlights of an oral tradition. But what is interesting is that the character-meanings of the Hebrew words of these ten generations form a coherrant sentence:
| Name | Hebrew Character Meaning |
|---|---|
| Adam | Man |
| Seth | Appointed |
| Enoch | Mortal |
| Kenan | Sorrow |
| Mahalalel | The Blessed God |
| Jared | Shall come down |
| Enoch | Teaching |
| Methuselah | His death shall bring |
| Lamech | The Despairing |
| Noah | Rest, or comfort |
However this article is cr@p. Since when is removing a "healthy" appendix malpractice? In fact it is considered bad medicine to have 100% positive (infected/gangrenous) appendixes removed. It indicates that you've probably had a percentage of "missed" appendicitis which usually results in a suit.
Removal of the coccyx?..... uh-huh... like that's even done in any great numbers.
As far as removal of the tonsils, it isn't done "routinely" for anybody except ENT's that are shady. There are criteria for removal of tonsils and it isn't for "simple swelling".
This article is simplistic, stuff like this that makes Christians look like idiots/Luddites.
How about just faith? Meaning, I don't know how we came to be in this form. But I'll tell you how I came to know for a fact that there is a creator and that we just didn't happen.
I sat on the shore looking up at the stars and then my daughter sat in my lap. I looked at her ear. The swirl of the cartilage and then remembered the small bones within the inner ear that allow us to balance by sensing endolymph on microscopic hairs within 3 rings of canals within bones. Just the complexity and intricate balance of only ONE part of our body's multiple organ systems in relation to the immensity of the universe led me away from the "ball of gas", random protoplasm, single celled randomness, fish flopping onto the shore, humping rodents and monkeys with large frontal cortexes....etc, etc,etc.
Can I explain how it all came to pass.....nope. But I also don't bother crapping on scientists who observe the physical world. I just think that they aren't mutually exclusive.
If you do, then it's out of fear that your argument of faith in the creator is weak and you only wish to denigrate the scientists......or burn, torture and kill them as heretics.
I think that Christianity is not meant to be simple. With simple answers about matters of faith and the creation of man are left to children's stories. As adults we should be able to look at the physical world , marvel at the Lord's creation, and be inspired by his use of the palette of matter and energy.
One of my daughters said it best looking at a sunset over the water. "Look at what God did, isn't it beautiful." I had to agree with her.
I thought this was known for like the last twenty years.
Quite a few, and as metmom pointed out, they still do. This is from Appendicitis It Can Be the Unkindest Cut:
Nobody knows what causes appendicitis. Only 110,000 women have appendicitis every year, but nearly 372,000 women have appendectomies.
"I was surprised by the statistics," says medical epidemiologist David Addiss, M.D., the investigator who led the CDC study.
Studies indicate that the most common reason women undergo more appendectomies than men is the biological makeup of the female anatomy: Doctors often have difficulty differentiating between gynecological problems and appendicitis. And sometimes a doctor will simply decide to remove a normal appendix while operating in the abdomen for other reasons.
And this is just women!
The article's intent was to show that the the organs used were widely considered "vestigial" organs evolutionists. They believed, and taught generations to believe, and sometimes still teach, that these organs only had a function in the evolutionary past and really have no functions today.
Nitpicking out percentages of or removals of these organs doesn't change the premise of the article.
It is rare. But the point of the article was to show that it has a valuable function and that it's not some "leftover" tail from when we had tails.
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